The Phantom of the Opera

If you have never seen The Phantom of the Opera on stage, then you are missing out on a true spectacle of sight and sound. Several different attempts have been made at making a Phantom movie in the past, but they have all been failures. When I heard about this one, I was a little reluctant about it given the people involved. Now that I've seen the movie, my assumptions were all wrong. This movie is awesome. It'll take your breath away.

This films opens in the year 1919 at a rundown Paris playhouse and the film is in black and white. An auction is being held for various items from the golden years of the playhouse and a couple of faces which will soon become familiar are seen in the small group of bidders. When lot 666, a broken chandelier, is put on the block, it is raised to the ceiling. As it ascends, the color rushes into the scene and the audience is transported back nearly forty years to the time of the Phantom and the real story begins.

In the playhouse, Minnie Driver plays the ultimate diva whose days as a star are numbered. She thinks she's still the star of the show but her talent is questionable. The film has some hilarious opening scenes with her character throwing a hissy fit when the new owners show up to the playhouse and start suggesting changes. The true unknown talent of the playhouse is from a young girl named Chrstine Daae (Emmy Rossum from The Day After Tomorrow) who will soon get her chance to shine. You see, Christine has a secret teacher; an angel of music. When she goes to the chapel to pray, or when she is sitting in her room, a voice from above calls out to her and sings with her. She had always thought it to be the angel of her deceased father, but in truth it was the Phantom of the Opera.

The Phantom, who is a real person living in the underbelly of the playhouse, is a truly tortured soul. He's a musical genius with a physical deformity that prevented him from ever taking the stage, and with Christine he found a way to channel his talents through her. Of course, he falls in love with her during this process, but her heart already belongs to another man named Raoul. As the Phantom's anger and jealousy become stronger, his own insanity begins to take over and people start getting hurt or killed. This movie is more of a tragic love story than a horror film, but it has elements of both genres throughout.

Gerard Butler plays the Phantom with an incredible amount of passion, and I expect him to earn quite a few new female fans as a result of this role. He can't sing anywhere near as well as Michael Crawford (the original stage Phantom) but Gerard does hold his own, considering he has never had any musical experience before. I can best compare Butler's singing to that of Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. Emmy Rossum totally blew me away in her role as Christine. Even though she is very young, she tackled the role perfectly. She has a kind of sadness in her eyes that was necessary for a character torn between two men. This is one actress to keep your eye on.

Part of what make this movie so wonderful is the beautiful sets and costumes. This is definitely a visual treat and you can tell that no expense was spared in creating this film. I read that none of the stars or the director had even seen the stage play and were asked not to in order to put their own original spin on the story. The result was spectacular. Most scenes are just a little bit different from the stage, but not so much that anything was changed. An extra 15 minutes of music was also written for this movie.

Director Joel Schumacher nearly lost me with his rendition of the last two Batman movies. He killed the franchise by making them look like a raver's nightmare. I used to really love his work, especially The Lost Boys and Flatliners. In recent years he has a made a few low-key movies, but with this one he has definitely regained my respect. This new version of The Phantom is a musical, but it doesn't look like a huge acid trip like Moulin Rouge and it isn't full of prison gals like Chicago. Joel's excellent sense of visual flair and color is put to great use with this movie. It is neither gaudy nor overdone, and I couldn't have imagined this film being done any other way. In short, "Bravo!"